


Louder Than Words

by hyperionnebulae



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 13:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17961644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyperionnebulae/pseuds/hyperionnebulae
Summary: Duel Kingdom internal Rex dialogue.Written piece for the zine found here: https://gamestartzine.tumblr.com/post/181419766545/gamestartzine-gamestartzine-the-game-start





	Louder Than Words

The first thing he said to me was that he liked my guts. What a strange thing to say to someone you’ve just met… I didn’t think the blond-haired boy-next-door would steal more than the tournament from me then but my, as he said, “dino punk” ego only looked one direction those days and that was forward. And then a damsel needed rescuing, or so I thought.

“You can’t expect a lady to share a room; it doesn’t even have a shower!”

She was older than me but clearly didn’t know how things worked in the tournament world. Which meant that she hadn’t spent as much time in it as I had. “If you keep acting like a spoiled brat, they’ll throw you off the boat, miss…?”

“You’ve got to be joking!”

She was causing quite the commotion in the hallway and I wanted some time to think about the next few days but I had time to be… shall we say generous? “Why don’t you come to my private room?”

“Seriously?”

Yes seriously. As serious as I could be naive enough to let two hot blondes royally stomp out any chance I had at seeing the inside of Pegasus’ castle.

The next part goes by a little quick: she tells me I’m big and strong and she likes that, tells me she’ll do anything I want if I beat her in a duel, shows me some fancy card trick, and then literally throws me out of my own suite calling my a pathetic loser! No need to reminisce about that part… embarrassing… it took me a few days to catch up to Mai (her name is very clearly ingrained in my brain now) and exact my revenge or… that’s how I planned it to go.

“I finally found you! How dare you make a fool out of me on the ship!”

She paused for entirely too long looking me over cluelessly before recognition settled into her annoyingly perfect features. “Oh, I remember you now. I’m not interested in men who have been defeated so buzz off!”

I started to sputter with my rage rising up through my entire body. “…I took second in nationals and I’ve already got - What?! You’ve got 8 star chips?!”

Her gaze turned from bored to mischievous and I was way to willing to play the fool, agreeing to her ridiculous proposition to duel this guy named Joey Wheeler. He seemed jealous when Mai referred to me as “her servant” (gross)… but he accepted the terms, even with the caveat that no one was allowed to help him.

Stepping onto the dueling platform, Joey looked mighty nervous. I had to be at least fifty feet away from him and I could still see the sweat beginning to form on his brow and hear the breath catch slightly in his throat. He seemed interested in what I got out of all of this and I never thought to ask what was in the the tournament for him. My hot-headed self barely acknowledged the obvious respect reflected in his eyes at the time.

I cringed when he played Baby Dragon. It was such a dumb move and everyone besides him seemed to know it. The field power bonus took him for surprize as well. I barely had to play any monsters at first to crush all the weak cards he set down, I’ve even forgotten the names of… I think one was Leogun? I actually started to feel a bit bad. The both of us caught in Mai’s trap…

Flame Swordsman was the first step in his favor though no match for Serpent Night Dragon. His battle guards took me by surprize as well, at first. Something about friendship, yadda yadda. And then… it happened!

I’d heard of cards calling out to players before but it had never happened to me. It had taken me a whole year of playing pickup matches with losers and tournaments you don’t even hear about to save up to buy Red-Eyes Black Dragon and it had never been more than a power card to me before this duel.

“My most powerful card has arrived! It’s rare anyone gets to see this card; you should feel honored to lose to it.”

I thought I sounded so confident then but as Red-Eyes stared down at my opponent I could feel its… longing? Something about this boy resonated with my card. Sure he was a amatuer who’d probably only played a handful of real games in his life but my dragon saw him as a warrior.

No one expected me to propose the exchange I did, well no one but me and Red-Eyes. I had to scream at Mai to shut-up just to get Joey to snap out of the shock. There was still a chance he’d screw it up and I’d end up winning but I had a feeling luck was on his side and not mine.

I hid a smile through a facade of disbelief when the Time Wizard’s hand fell on a castle. Joey was quick to remind me of my promise and I handed the winnings over to him.

Goodbye, Red-Eyes; I have a feeling this is where you were meant to be all along.


End file.
